Burning Man at the Renwick Gallery

This is our entry in Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things Made From Wood.

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man was an exhibition at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) in Washington, D.C. from March 30, 2018 to January 21, 2019.  This traveling exhibit brings to life (as much as is possible inside a museum space) the annual Burning Man nine-day event that occurs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert with 70,000 participant-spectators.  We found the exhibit by accident while wandering around D.C. and just decided to walk in.

The Burning Man sculpture is always made of wood and burned at the end of the event. The first Burning Man was constructed in San Francisco in 1987 and was eight feet tall (or nine feet, depending on the source). Each year the sculpture has been taller, rising to 75 feet in 2018.  The Burning Man in the photo is about eight feet tall, including the outstretched arms.

Of the “Ten Principles of  Burning Man,” “Participation” appears to be the principle behind the naming of the Renwick exhibit: No Spectators.

Burning Man 2019 will occur from August 25 to September 2 this year.

Burning Man at the Renwick Gallery

This photo was taken on October 1, 2018. It is a selective color image with only orange, black, and white. Specs are:

Canon 200D, ISO 400, f/3.5, 1/30 sec, 18 mm.

6 thoughts on “Burning Man at the Renwick Gallery”

  1. Especially enjoyed this since I call Reno home–the gateway to burning man. Though I don’t attend, the Nevada Museum of Art, where I used to be a docent , serves us a fair share of the wonderful art that is produced for the event. During Burning Man, the site at the Black Rock Desert is the 3rd most populous city in Nevada.

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    1. Thank you for visiting and commenting. We are glad it struck a chord with you. We were fascinated by the exhibit and thought how wonderful the real Burning Man must be.

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